Housekeeping: Finishing up the 3-day quote challenge!

Here goes. Y’all ready for my final quotes for the challenge? I hope so. And I equally hope you’re ready to share more with me!

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This one is quite special to me. I’ve always loved the poem – look, I know poems aren’t exactly what is meant by “quote.” But fuck it, just look at it as an extra-long quote that’s kinda sorta like a poem. Cuz it’s a fuckin’ poem! – but it became even more special to me in college. One of the best professors in the world would read it – and cry – at least once in every course he taught. For decades. The world is a sadder place with his absence. I hope I can live up to the dream he had for all of his students…to Carry the Message to Garcia (oooo another post idea) and to take the road less traveled by.

The Road Not Taken~Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

That last part always choked him up, my professor. And he always ended with silent tears weaving down the crevices of his age-worn face. He was so dear to me and to so many others. He certainly took the road less traveled by, and I hope that I will in the end as well.

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And last, but certainly not least. I know I’ll take the road less traveled by, because:

Reblogged this on therichardbraxton and commented:
I love the subversion of The Family Circus comic.

I read somewhere that when Robert Frost wrote The Road Not Taken, he was intending it as a harsh critique of one of his friends that would always agonize over small decisions like which of the two equally suitable paths to take. I could not find the original article that I read this in, but I did find one article that talks about how people interpret the poem differently than Frost had intended: http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/09/11/the-most-misread-poem-in-america/
This article doesn’t offer the best proof of Frost’s intentions because he relies solely on his own interpretation of the lines in the poem and not on historical evidence like letters or journals. However, author’s intentions and other reader’s interpretations only matter as much as you want them to. Poetry interpretation is intensely personal and any poem can mean anything that you want it to mean.

Whoa, that’s fascinating. I had no idea that it’s considered so immensely misinterpreted. Thank you for the info, and I’m going to read that article. I love learning about things like this – and it can’t take away from my own special perspective on it.

Now there’s a poem you can pick up and wear as a blanket against the cold of reality. Yes, the road less traveled…always has more rocks in the way, always more overgrown than the beaten down path. Easy to get lost. One could say it’s not a path to take unless you’re half a loner already. And taking that path may make you a complete loner forever. Is it ‘worth it’? That’s always the question for me. I feel I stumble a lot, lose faith in myself every damned day…It’s hard to keep going. I can’t say the vistas I’ve seen are more awe inspiring than the ones the other path offers. I can say that the other path does seem to offer more 5 star way-stations.

Then again, I’m not a lobster and caviar type of person. I’ll die on the side of the mountain, thank you very much. Let the buzzards and wolves pick my bones: I don’t care. 😉

Bloody hell, woman. It’s nearly 2 A.M. here, and I’m not sure my feeble brain can handle you waxing philosophical. That was a profound observation, and now I want to invite YOU here so I can introduce you to the mountain trails in Glacier National Park in Montana. Talk about mountains worthy of dying upon. 🙂

lol! Sorry for the philosophy dump so early! I’ve actually been in Glacier National Park…it was a Dad trip, which meant look as we pass by in the car. We drove through, but we didn’t stop. So I’d love to see it again with some proper time on hand. Really get to know the place. Shit, man. Gonna take a lot more swimming before I be ready for THAT! 😉

I could give it a try..Though, to be honest, just going back to the states is more intimidating than climbing a mountain. I’ve been gone a long, long time. They may want to have a little chat with me….

I have always liked that poem (ok, at least liked it since or when I lived in NH and made the obligatory visit to his farm…). Thanks for posting your thoughts, and thanks for liking my post.
Shira
4.11.12015 HE